Construction began Saturday on the Northwest Freeway Center, a $10.5 million project at the southwest corner of the freeway and West 43rd Street.

The 247,000-square-foot center will include a 104,800-square-foot Venture store, a 51,252-square-foot Service Merchandise and space for other stores. The stores will open in July 1994.

Northwest Freeway Center is being developed by Smith & Co. with Tom Moughon of Resource Development Group as associate developer. Smith acquired the 18-acre site for the center last week from Vickers Trust, which was represented by Les Appelt.

This is a news snippet from an article published in 1993. Sadly, time didn't go so well for the center--Venture (12005 Northwest Freeway) pulled out in 1997 and was quickly replaced by Big Kmart around 1998, which was not profitable and closed in January 2003. It later became Burlington Coat Factory, which it still is.

A Toys R Us was added shortly thereafter, but it became Fallas Discount Store (Fallas Paredes), while Service presumably collapsed in bankruptcy (likely 1999, but it's possible it stuck around 2002) and sat vacant until Joe V's Smart Shop filled in around 2011.

Other shops included a Petco, which I'm not sure was original or not. If you have anything to say about this center, mention it in the comments. Sorry I have no pictures!